Bleached

A mother who was badly burned in a bleach attack after asking a group of youths to be quiet

It's Your Fault, Not Mine

by Gary Fleming

So, I’ve done it to you again. My gay marriage series this week has lit a fire under you, and I took all your punches.

This series was designed to do just that. The goal was to challenge your notions of both sides of the gay marriage debate and make you think about things you may not have considered before. I didn’t ask you to agree, just to think.

Two stories particularly grabbed your attention. The first was about a gay black man who is struggling to awaken the black community — which largely opposes gay marriage — to gay rights.

In his eyes, many African-Americans are being hypocritical by not supporting gay rights, considering their own background of oppression and prejudice.

I received buckets of letters saying I had no business equating the civil rights movement to the gay rights movement. So let’s be clear: I made no such argument. I brought you the story of a man who makes that argument. It’s up to you to decide whether you agree.

The second story that got you fired up was one featuring gay marriage opponents who say their stances don’t make them bigots. I brought you three people who voted for Proposition 8 in California but who also say they don’t think being gay is immoral, despite the way they voted.

Well, you just ripped me a new one. You told me that if I was willing to run such a story, I must be willing to run a story on backing slavery and the like. You said I was giving credence to hatemongers and that I ruined your gay pride month celebrations.

So, another point of clarification: For those who said I’m supporting “hatemongers” by printing a certain side of the debate, talk to your fellow readers who told me the opposite the day before.

More importantly, the opinions of the opponents are theirs, not mine. I simply brought you the story, and let you decide for yourselves. By presenting both sides of the debate, I was bound to irk some readers one day, and others the next.

If the story ruined your good time, that’s your fault for letting it get to you that much.

Here's Your Meatloaf Sandwich, Sir

American Scofflaw

A man got the shock of his life when he opened a loaf of bread and found a whole mouse inside.

That Would Be Logical

The Gay Secretary

Why did I vote for this man? Well, that's a post for another time, believe me. At this moment, Obama is turning into Bush and that ain't cool.

President Obama, has done a brilliant job of creating an object lesson, through the invasion of Iraq, about just what can happen to a country which has absolutely no nuclear deterrent.

And President Obama, for the gazillionth time: you know (and if you don't, your military science advisors should be telling you) that what Iran is working on is a power station.

The level of uranium enrichment is that consistent with creating a power station, and not a weapon, which would take a far higher level of enrichment. The IAEA inspections have consistently confirmed that.

As a signatory to the NPT (which, as you know, Israel is not), Iran is perfectly within its rights to be using nuclear energy for peaceful means, i.e., building a power station.

In fact, if we were on the ground as advisors for this process, American scientists would see for themselves, without question, that there is absolutely no weapons development going on whatsoever.

However, that would be logical.

And that would completely undermine Israel's continued bellicose complaining that they need the US to exterminate its next "existential threat", Iran.

Retard Pothead

Some Guy Buried Himself...Whaaaat?

American Scofflaw

They won't say how he died ...

... and they claim he buried himself.

Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME, SCOFFLAW??????????

Calamity Jane In Over Head

American Scofflaw
Keep an eye on Rahm, he's behind it.

The exposure of the Jane Harman-AIPAC axis of treason has exploded the illusion of the Israel Lobby’s invulnerability. Here they thought they had the AIPAC espionage trial swept safely under the rug, or nearly so, what with the prosecution of two former top Lobby officials seemingly stalled indefinitely, and the Justice Department "reviewing" whether to pursue the case. Not only that, but accused Israeli spy Steve Rosen is riding high, having recently been instrumental in the downfall of Obama administration appointee Charles Freeman. Slated to take up a key post, which would have had him writing the president’s daily intelligence briefing, Freeman was lynched by a bipartisan mob of neocons and Israel-firsters, with the disgraceful (albeit not sufficiently disgraced) Rosen leading the charge.

This triumphal march hit a rather large bump in the road, however, when none other than Congressional Quarterly published a bombshell story detailing how Rep. Jane Harman – hawkish Democrat and reliable ally of the Lobby – had been caught red-handed offering to take up a request by "a suspected Israeli agent" to intercede with the Justice Department and the White House in order to get the charges against Rosen and his assistant, Keith Weissman, reduced or dropped altogether. In exchange, the agent averred, AIPAC would pressure Speaker-to-be Nancy Pelosi to appoint Harman head of the House Intelligence Committee, with the threat of withholding Haim Saban’s substantial contribution to the Democratic Party dangled over Pelosi’s head like Damocles’ sword.

Hoaxter Revisted

American Scofflaw
This is a perfect example of how this hate bill will break America into fragments screaming and pointing fingers at each other. The media has made being a victim such a great thing that every sub group is competing to see who can out-bleed the other.

Just Wondering

The Gay Secretary
War. The ultimate game. An addiction to death and the rush it brings. Even tho war is hell, many players cannot fathom doing anything else..ever. I know such a man. A man trying to leave the "theater" behind but cant because as he puts it, "it is what I am good at." But there is a more sinister underlying reason people such as these return for tour after tour and make the military their life's careers. The true warrior is of a different breed than the ones repulsed by death and destruction but live by the creed, "I like killing things." Blood lust. Pleasure derived in death.

Ever felt it? The blood lust. Ever kill for pleasure, or to see if it is possible to make that shot? I have many times and will again. I have felt the rush of big game hunting, an intensive adrenaline flow that leaves one weak in the knees with the accompanying tale to tell around the fires in elk camp. I have witnessed "buck fever," where one descends into another realm and everything hangs in time that slows to a seemingly eternity with the accompanied pounding of heightened blood pressure and the inability to catch ones breath that erases all memories as the world suspends in the moment. It is addicting. What the non hunter or the Peta bleeding hearts can never understand, the big game hunter knows exactly why war is so popular. We also feel the pleasure from the precision of bullet placement. We know the heightened awareness that comes with hunting dangerous game with the search and destroy of a wounded bear and it is thrilling and unlike anything artificial. We comprehend the mindset it takes to be what the Marines term "a few good men." Make no mistake, we know what it takes and there really is only a few.

Stop it Jane, You're Being Silly

American Scofflaw

There is another aspect to this case people have not commented on. In ending the phone call with the suspected with "This conversation never happened"

Harman betrays a comfortable familiarity with the contents, suggesting that these sorts of quid pro quos with AIPAC are a very common occurrence in DC.

Yeah, and NOW wiretapping is a real problem, isn't it, Jane; now that you have been hoisted on the petard you yourself approved of!

I love how she gets flustered at 3 minutes!

The fact is that what AIPAC wanted, charged reduced against Rosen and Weissman, did in fact happen. The charges of espionage were indeed reduced to merely being in possession of classified documents.

So, if Jane did not obstruct justice, she is saying someone else did.

Scofflaws Unmasked

American Scofflaw
Freddie Mac documents are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act because they contain or might compromise commercial information–that is, the proprietary insider information of a private company.

Today, in the Washington Post, we learn that that private company was pressured to withhold negative information it was obligated to disclose under SEC rules. It seems that following government policy will adversely affect its bottom line, and the firm wanted to tell its remaining shareholders that.

According to a complaint later filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Freddie Mac, known formally as the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, misreported profits by billions of dollars in order to deceive investors between the years 2000 and 2002.

זה מצחיק ביותר

By Bibi Netanyahu

1. ישראל פצצות תחנת הכוח של איראן.
2. ישראל באמצעות אמריקה בתור הגנה מתחיל לצחוק
3. איראן וארצות הברית לצאת למערכה

US Treasury Dept. Public Service Announcement

Wiretapped Galore

American Scofflaw

This week the New York Times revealed that the National Security Agency has continued spying on Americans well into the Obama era, with government officials listening in on phone conversations and monitoring e-mails on a massive scale.

Times reporters James Risen and Eric Lichtblau -- who broke the story of the Bush administration's domestic spying program in December 2004 -- reported that "in recent months," the NSA has engaged in an "overcollection" of domestic communication, far exceeding the already broad legal limits Congress established when it passed legislation to legalize the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program and granting immunity for the telecoms that enabled it.

The same article reveals that in 2005 or 2006, the NSA attempted to wiretap an unidentified member of Congress, lending further credence to speculation earlier this year by Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.V., that he might have been spied on.

For many who have followed the long political saga that saw warrantless wiretapping revealed, debated and ultimately legalized at the hands of Congress, this report comes as no surprise.

"Everyone knew that the FISA bill, which congressional Democrats passed -- and which George Bush and Dick Cheney celebrated -- would enable these surveillance abuses," Glenn Greenwald wrote after the story broke.

Nevertheless, for many people it may come as a shock that nearly 4 1/2 years after the illegal program was uncovered, not only has the government continued to spy on Americans with total impunity, most of the details of Bush's warrantless wiretapping scheme remain a mystery.

"What really concerns me is that we still don't know the truth," Thomas Tamm, a former FBI official told me. "We do not know what they did."

Tamm should know. He is the person who blew the whistle on the NSA spying program, a former employee of the Office of Intelligence Policy and Review, a highly sensitive unit of the Justice Department. He remained anonymous for years, until his identity was revealed in a front-page story by Newsweek reporter Michael Isikoff late last year.

The article described how Tamm, a veteran employee of the FBI, came across proof that the U.S. government had been unlawfully eavesdropping on Americans by intercepting domestic communications.

"The idea of lawlessness at the Justice Department angered him," Isikoff wrote. After many sleepless nights and frustrating conversations with his superiors -- "supervisors told him to drop the subject" -- he decided he could no longer keep the abuse to himself.

Finally, one day during his lunch hour, Tamm ducked into a subway station near the U.S. District Courthouse on Pennsylvania Avenue. He headed for a pair of adjoining pay phones partially concealed by large, illuminated Metro maps. Tamm had been eyeing the phone booths on his way to work in the morning. Now, as he slipped through the parade of midday subway riders, his heart was pounding, his body trembling. Tamm felt like a spy. After looking around to make sure nobody was watching, he picked up a phone and called the New York Times.

What Tamm revealed would not be reported for a year-and-a-half, when Risen and Litchblau published their now-famous front page story. They went on to win the Pulitzer Prize. Meanwhile, Tamm "has not fared as well."

"The FBI has pursued him relentlessly for the past 2 1/2 years," Isikoff wrote. "Agents have raided his house, hauled away personal possessions and grilled his wife, a teenage daughter and a grown son. More recently, they've been questioning Tamm's friends and associates about nearly every aspect of his life.

"Tamm has resisted pressure to plead to a felony for divulging classified information. But he is living under a pall, never sure if, or when, federal agents might arrest him."

Tamm remains in a sort of legal limbo, with the Department of Justice informing him that no decision on whether to prosecute him would be made until Barack Obama took office. Four months into Obama's term, however, Tamm has not heard anything.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration has blocked efforts by civil-liberties organizations to hold accountable those who unlawfully spied on Americans, even as more details have emerged revealing the broad targets of the NSA program, which included journalists and even members of Congress.

The Gay Trickster

American Scofflaw

After the huge success of Sacha Baron Cohen's films Ali G In Da House and Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan, you'd think people would have wised up to the comedian's disguises.

But it appears not everyone recognises the comedian when he's dressed up as his third alter-ego, gay Austrian fashion reporter Bruno.

Texas congressman Ron Paul, who was a Republican candidate for the 2008 presidential election, was left fuming after he was unwittingly tricked into a hotel room with Cohen's Bruno character.

How do I look? Sacha Baron Cohen attempts to strike a seductive pose as Bruno

The right-wing politician was tricked into being a target of seduction by Bruno last summer by posing as an economic reporter.

Unhappy: Ron Paul fled a hotel room when Sacha Baron Cohen started undressing

After Paul briefly appeared in the trailer for Cohen's forthcoming film Bruno: Delicious Journeys Through America For The Purpose Of Making Heterosexual Male, he realised he would have to explain himself to voters.

Speaking on America's ABC radio this week, angry Paul condemned Cohen for lying and accused him of 'fraud'.

During an interview with presenter Curtis Sliwa, Paul was asked how he ended up in a hotel room in such a compromising situation.

He said: 'We were in a studio situation, I wasn't invited into a hotel room. There were lots of lights and blaze and commotion and they said we better get in this back room which had been fixed up as a bedroom.

'So there was some dishonesty getting me into the interview, I was expecting an interview on Austrian economics. That didn't turn out that way.

'By the time he (Cohen) started pulling his pants down, I was like what on earth is going on here and I ran out of the room. This interview had ended.'

In what is sure to be hilarious viewing in the upcoming film, Paul is stunned when Bruno starts to disrobe in front of him.

Wild thing: Bruno has a penchant for hotpants and PVC

Paul said: 'I don't like the way he lies his way into interviews. That to me is fraud.

'He has raunchy material people buy into it's sort of sad that it's a reflection of our culture.It's a real shame people are gonna reward him with millions and millions of dollars for being so crass.'

Cohen, who also wrote and produced the movie, was forced to re-edit the movie after American censors gave it a NC-17 rating, which meant under 17s would have been banned from seeing the film.

After the Borat move took an amazing $261million in takings three years ago, Cohen wants the Bruno film to have the same potential audience.

This interview is OVER: Paul storms out of the room after Bruno starts to disrobe

Cohen and director Larry Charles have now toned down some of the more sexual scenes, prompting the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) to reclassify it with an R rating, which means under 17s can see it with a parent or guardian.

The comedian filmed Bruno in America and Europe over last summer.

In September, his Bruno character caused chaos at Milan Fashion Week when he jumped on to the catwalk of the Agata Luiz della Prada show.

Cohen also pokes fun at Madonna's adoption of Malawi toddler David Banda when he collects an African baby out of luggage at an airport.

Just like Madonna's appearance on U.S. chat shows following her controversial adoption of David - whose biological father is still alive, Bruno appears on TV to defend his adoption of the baby.

Bianca who? Cohen apes Bianca Jagger's famous horseride at Studio 54

He says: 'Angelina's got one, Madonna's got one, now Bruno's got one.

'I gave him a traditional African name - OJ.'

Bruno was first seen alongside another famous Cohen creation, Ali G, on The Ali G Show.

The movie is being shot in the same documentary style as 2006's smash hit Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan.

The Real Scofflaws Calling The Shots

By Mark Pittman

U.S. taxpayers need to know the risks behind the Federal Reserve’s $2 trillion in lending to financial institutions because the public is now an “involuntary investor” in the nation’s banks, according to a court filing by Bloomberg LP.

The Fed refuses to name the borrowers, the amounts of loans or assets banks put up as collateral under 11 programs, arguing that doing so might set off a run by depositors and unsettle shareholders. Bloomberg, the New York-based company majority- owned by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, sued Nov. 7 under the Freedom of Information Act on behalf of its Bloomberg News unit. It made the new filing yesterday.

American Scofflaw

And these are the private investors/owners of the Fed (America's privately owned central bank).
And don't forget--you're paying to make these scofflaws wealthy!!!

I Luv Domino's Pizza, Don't You?

Video footage of Domino’s Pizza employees adding their “Special Ingredients” to the sandwiches.

Don't Fall for This Crap

The Gay Secretary

Beware this "left wing versus right wing" dichotomy. This is an attempt to trick us into arguing with each other instead of uniting against the common cause of our problems.

Yes, industries left our nation for China under the Bushes but it also did so under the Clintons! The loss of manufacturing has continued unimpeded through every Presidency for the last 30 years, Republican and Democrat alike.

Has Obama reversed the tax credits, to bring those jobs and manufacturing back home? No? Bad, bad, BAD right wing President Obama. Oh wait, he's a lefty!

The only real divide is the one mentioned at the very top of this article. The one percent that owns it all against the 99% of us being driven into poverty. The poor against the oligarchs.

The powers-that-be are trying to distract us from the looting of our wallets by the big banks by creating a left-versus-right, us-versus-them drama.

You know, the old divide-and-conquer schtick.

Americans from across the political spectrum are furious at the financial elite who have robbed us blind, and their enablers in government.

While at the moment, conservatives are getting more press, those on the left are just as angry. For example, leading progressive Glenn Greenwald wrote an essay entitled "The virtues of public anger and the need for more" cheering the fact that Americans are starting to get in touch with their righteous anger at being ripped off.

Liberals have launched their own version of the tea party protests calling for the big banks to be broken up.

What's Going On Here?

American Scofflaw
When Army Staff Sergeant Amanda Henderson ran into Staff Sergeant Larry Flores in their Texas recruiting station last August, she was shocked by the dark circles under his eyes and his ragged appearance. "Are you O.K.?" she asked the normally squared-away soldier. "Sergeant Henderson, I am just really tired," he replied. "I had such a bad, long week, it was ridiculous." The previous Saturday, Flores' commanders had berated him for poor performance. He had worked every day since from 6:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., trying to persuade the youth of Nacogdoches to wear Army green. "But I'm O.K.," he told her.

No, he wasn't. Later that night, Flores hanged himself in his garage with an extension cord. Henderson and her husband Patrick, both Army recruiters, were stunned. "I'll never forget sitting there at Sergeant Flores' memorial service with my husband and seeing his wife crying," Amanda recalls. "I remember looking over at Patrick and going, 'Why did he do this to her? Why did he do this to his children?' " Patrick didn't say anything, and Amanda now says Flores' suicide "triggered" something in her husband. Six weeks later, Patrick hanged himself with a dog chain in their backyard shed. (See pictures of suicide in recruiters' ranks.)